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Results tagged “Snap! photography” from PPA Today

This is one of my all-time
favorite quotes: "Such a pleasant thought, if you improve overall conditions
everyone can sail happily into the sunset".

It's an idea I try to set my
moral compass to and a philosophy I practice in my business. When I recognize
this quality in others I want to latch onto them because lately it seems most
people practice the "every man for himself" motto and would sooner
see you walk the plank than steer your own ship.

...except at Imaging USA. There,
everyone is raising the tide. Unfortunately, it's not possible to latch onto 11,000
people, not even if you're a Kraken (mythical sea beast with many arms). Still,
I wish I could give every special person I talked to a big old slimy tentacle
hug. I guess I'll have to settle for squeezing them with my words instead.

I think we can all agree that if there was such an award,
Kanye West would be in contention for the prestigious "Most Obnoxious
Person on the Planet" honor. Yet, if there's one thing this year has
taught me, it's that there is valuable insight to be gleaned from even the most
insufferable sources. Don't think Kanye can teach you anything about your
photography business? Well, hold onto
your leather jogging pants people because you are about to get schooled.*

*
A reference to Kanye telling the press that it was he who brought leather
jogging pants to Fendi six years ago and was flat out denied. To quote Kanye
directly, "How many [expletive] you done seen with a leather jogging
pant?" Too many to count, Kanye, too many to count.

Last week I had two objectives. The first was to create
welcome boxes for our four new clients. I figured I would complete that task by
lunch time, freeing up my afternoon to dive into my second priority which was
blogging our last wedding of the season. Sadly, when 4 pm rolled around I found
myself making a dash to the post office with my four boxes just in the nick of
time. I felt so frustrated with my slow self! The urgent voice in the back of
my head (born of one too many lectures about maximizing time and streamlining
workflow) makes me feel like I am always playing beat the clock.

Could I streamline my welcome box assembly? I considered
the steps...

1. Bake (from scratch) a batch of our signature Snap!
Vegan Salted Oat Cookies. Sprinkle in a few choice swear words when you realize
you are out of vanilla, craisins, almond milk, etc.-- take your pick because
there's always something missing! Run to the grocery store for said missing
item.

2. Cool cookies on racks, beating back family and
business partner as they attempt to consume the cookies that are supposed to be
going to clients. Keep one eye on your computer screen and one eye on the
cookies while you attempt to complete step 3.

3. Go to the PPA charities website and start donating.
(We donate $240 for every wedding we book to Operation Smile). A separate donation form has to be filled out
for each new client. Print out a receipt for the donation to include in the
welcome box.

4. Hand write a note to each client explaining the awesomeness
of Operation Smile, and the awesomeness of them booking us so that we can
donate to the awesome cause.

8. Hand write (another) thank you note on our special
letterpress thank you cards and nestle it on top of the presents.

9. Tape the Box and fill out a mailing label.

10. Run to the post office to mail the package--fresh
baked cookies need to be eaten straight away after all!

Ideas I came up with for trimming some time from my
welcome box assembly included; store bought cookies... out of the question! I'd
sooner eat Kanye's leather jogging pants. Besides, the snap cookies are
addictive, they've been tested. On the scale of addictiveness you have
cigarettes, then heroine, and next Snap's vegan salted oat cookies. I guess I
could skip the hand written note part, but I really love receiving a handwritten
note. Doesn't everyone?

Putting the cookie conundrum on the back burner, I dove
into my next project, blogging our last wedding of the season. Surely I'd crank
that right out.

Wrong, this took me two days. Is taking two days to blog
a wedding an outrageous waste of time? There's a popular "blog every day" movement
among some photographers, but I wonder how to create a quality post if you have
to churn them out daily. Again I considered my steps.

1. Carefully choose 85-100 photos. That's a lot of photos
for sure but that's what it takes for me to successfully tell the story. I am
VERY picky about what shots make it onto the blog. They must be flattering to
the client, flattering to the other vendors involved and flattering to us
because if everyone is flattered than everybody wins.

2. "Jazz" the photos. That's a technical term
we use around here for photoshopping. Every single photo is retouched, jazzed
with an appropriate photo shop action, sized for the blog and watermarked.

3. Rename the photos for SEO and upload them to the post.

4. Write the post. I find a clever or sentimental quote
and share some personal thoughts about the couple and the wedding. Then I mention
the other fabulous vendors. Finally I tie it all together neatly with some
expert advice or a funny behind the scenes peek.

5. Post the blog, share the link on Facebook, and notify
the bride and the other vendors involved that it's up. Hurray!

6. Take a nap before my head explodes.

Maybe there are some things I could trim here too. Less
photos? No jazzing? Skip the personal writing which takes so much time? I
suppose... NOT. Doing so would feel like sacrificing quality.

I'm really happy with the QUALITY of my cookies and I am
happy with the QUALITY of my blogging. More importantly, so are my clients. Here's
the thing about quality: most often it takes a long time to achieve. This is
where our friend Kanye's valuable lesson comes into the story. Kanye was
recently schooled himself by the Association of French Bakers in what can only
be described as the most sarcastically perfect reprimand in the history of
lambasting.

It seems Kanye wrote a song that really pissed off the
French. The offending lyrics were from the song, "I am God" (no, actually
that's not the offensive part). The part
they took umbrage with was these lyrics,

"In a French-ass restaurant

Hurry up with my damn
croissants"

I
know! The nerve, right?! The scathing letter from the bakers to Monsieur Kanye
West was lengthy, so I'll just give you a few of the more biting and poignant
bits.

Certainly,
you are not a man to be satisfied with pre-made croissants from the baked goods
case reheated and tossed out on a small platter. No -- you had demanded your
croissants freshly-baked, to be
delivered to your table straight out of the oven piping hot.

The
croissant is dignified?--?not vulgar like a piece of toast,
simply popped into a mechanical device to be browned. No?--?the croissant is born of tender
care and craftsmanship. Bakers must carefully layer the dough, paint on perfect
proportions of butter, and then roll and fold this trembling croissant embryo
with the precision of a Japanese origami master.

For
us mere mortals, we must wait the time required for the croissant to come to
perfect fruition, but as a deity, you can surely alter the bread's molecular
structure faster than the speed of light, no?

Hee-Hee,
that last line was my favorite! You've got to hand it to the French, they
really know how to sling an elegant insult. Much like the treasured croissant,
the Snap! experience is multi-layered; flaky
on the outside, tender in the middle and worth waiting for.

It
may take me all day to send four welcome boxes to new clients, but every one of
my clients sent a thank you email for the delicious cookies and gift. Every one
of them said they felt warm and fuzzy about donating to Operation Smile. I even
had a bride tell me recently that she makes Snap! cookies once a week for her
groom because... you guessed it... he's addicted to them. That kind of feel good
customer loyalty and branding is priceless.

I
feel the same way about blogging. We don't post everyday but I've had clients
tell me they look forward to the posts and savor reading them, just like a good
book. Would you feel compelled to savor something that you could have every
day? I know I wouldn't. I've never been there, but if I do ever make it to
Paris, I plan to savor me a few croissants and I'll wait patiently to get them.

The
next time you find yourself beating yourself up about how much time you've
spent on designing your website, networking with vendors, or creating a kickass
album design remember that quality attracts quality. Take another page from Monsieur
Kanye West's book because, after all, he attracted Kim Kardashian. Guess it
works in reverse too.

The other day Trish and I had a meeting with a potential
bride (Annie) and her mother (Ruth). They were two smartly-dressed, funny,
warm, interesting ladies. The most endearing thing about them was that they
work together as a mother/daughter dynamic-duo realty team. During our meeting,
we laughed, we chatted, we shared ideas and inspirations, relating to each
other on a sassy-ladies-in business kind of level.

Annie and Ruth were planning a big fabulous wedding at a fantastic
venue with a fancy wedding coordinator we love. We thought to ourselves, now
these two are our "ideal clients!" We could have spent all day chatting
with Annie and Ruth, in particular picking savvy business lady Ruth's brain
about what her "ideal client" was like.

It's safe to say we fell a little in love with Annie and
Ruth and when they left, we found ourselves staring longingly at them as they walked
away, calling out with a hint of neediness, "Don't be strangers! Bye-bye...
Call us!"

The problem with falling in love is it puts you at risk
of rejection. Unfortunately, it turned out that Annie and Ruth weren't as "into
us" as we were "into them." One-sided love never works out, and
a few days later after our date meeting, I got a "Dear Snap" letter
from Annie. It was the usual, "It's
not you...it's us" excuse.

WHY Annie!? Why Ruth?! What is it about us that drove you
away?!!! WHAAAA!

This question kept me awake, so I felt compelled to email
Annie back and ask her... casual-like... why she decided to break our hearts
go in another direction? Exactly what did the other photographer have that we
didn't? Perkier Albums? Curvier frames? Tell me Annie, tell me what I could
have done differently!

Annie was gracious enough to return my email. She
reiterated it wasn't us, they loved us. Our albums were indeed perky and our frames
curvy, but what really turned them on was slimmer packages. The other
photographer was cheaper more budget friendly. That's it. Budget trumped
our deep personal connection and charming personalities, end of story.

While Ruth may not have given us a deposit to shoot her
daughter Annie's wedding at that meeting, she did give us something invariably
more valuable, a little gem of advice. Remember how I asked Ruth about her
ideal client? Her answer gave me pause then but really got me thinking after
she dumped me.

She said, "My ideal client is one that pays me. If I
only worked with clients that I loved, I'd have like five clients and that
doesn't pay my bills. I keep my eye on the prize. Being able to work with all
kinds of people affords me a nice home, nice vacations and the ability to plan
a nice wedding."

There's a lot of photography talk out there about "Finding
your Ideal Client"--a concept that has always kind of confused me. What is
my ideal client? I thought sassy, funny, fashionable Annie and Ruth were ideal,
but I was wrong about them.

Seemingly, some photographers "ideal clients"
get married in a field and have rustic-barn-Anthropologie-type receptions
because all their photographs contain those elements. Other jet-setting photographers
seem to only photograph tall, thin, fashion forward model-types who marry in
European vineyards and/or castles because all of their photos are taken in
European vineyard and/or castles with unbelievably beautiful people. Others yet
seem to only photograph really creative tattooed people that seek alternative
venues like abandoned airplane hangars.

Why then, on any given weekend might I find myself shooting
a wedding on a boat, or in a moat, or with a goat? It makes me wonder, how can moat, boat, and goat clients ALL be
my ideal clients? Is it weird that my weddings are so varied in style,
location, and budget?

Here's where we circle back to Ruth and her gift to me.
The common denominator with the moat client, the goat client, and the boat
client is that they were all really excited to hire us. Eureka! Mystery
solved...my ideal client is... wait for it... a client who is really excited to
give me their money in return for us doing a really great job.

For whatever reason our photos, bad jokes, lack of
fashion sense, or quirky personalities speak to them. They feel comfortable
with us, confident we'll do a good job and are happy with their decision. Our
clients are tall, short, big-boned, skinny, type A's, artsy types, fancy, down-to-earth,
educated, hard-working, old money, blue collar, funny, shy, preppy,
alternative, silly and serious. They are all of these things and more and I am
grateful for their differences. I don't want my photographs to all look the
same, the same type of venue and the same type of people in the same type of
lighting. That gets really boring really fast. Besides, I'd like to shoot 40
weddings this year. What are the odds of finding 40 clients who want to have
goats at their wedding?

A few days after Annie and Ruth rejected us we had
another date meeting. (Gotta get back on the proverbial bicycle, right?)
Had I been thinking along the old "ideal client" lines, gauging clients
on their shoes or their venue, I might have missed out on a nice booking. This
wedding was to take place at venue we are unfamiliar with and with vendors we
don't normally work with. The couple was kind of quiet and shy, the
conversation was a little awkward and the meeting brief. In times like that it
can be hard to muster the razzle dazzle, but you know what? This couple was
interested in our photography and had taken the time to come and see us. They
deserved a little sparkle and we happily gave it to them. Although the meeting
was brief, the shy bride told us we made her feel really comfortable and she
would be excited to have us photograph her wedding... oh, and where should she
send the check?

Ideal clients? Yes, without a doubt.

Tags:

I did something so unconscionable, so objectionable, so very scandalous that I am trembling as I type this confession. No sense in dragging things out. I'm going to rip this indecent Band-Aid off in one quick tug.

I, Mariah Ashley, wedding photographer being of relatively sound mind and body, do hereby declare that I took two entire weeks off, in July, at the height of my busy season, to take my family on an epic summer vacation adventure.

(Audible gasps heard around the photography community)

There, I said it. I said it and I am not (entirely) ashamed that I did it.

On the last day of Imaging USA in January, Trish and I attended a seminar about creating balance called Life. Photography. Business: How Women Can Balance Them All. I think it was a great talk to end our Imaging experience. We had been hearing so much about faster workflows and generating more business that it was a nice reminder that business is not everything and that taking time to enjoy life is important too. Of course intellectually we all know that, but personally I find it really hard to fit "Enjoy My Life" into my daily schedule.

Trish and I have been full steam ahead since Imaging. We've been plugging away, making changes, keeping expenses low, boosting our web presence and marketing like mad. Basically implementing everything we learned while we were in Atlanta. And I have to say, progress was slow. Painfully slow. Horrifyingly slow. Considered getting a second job slow.

Every email we got, every time the phone rang we'd hold our breath and wait. I was getting so good at holding my breath that my second job could be in professional pearl diving.

Then around June I ran out of steam. I stalled right out on the tracks. I was the little engine that wept. I couldn't stand to ask myself one more time if we'd finally reached a tipping point, if we were on the up-swing, if we'd arrived. Please dear God, are we there yet?

Well, we weren't "there yet," and since we weren't going anywhere fast, I decided I'd go on a vacation. For two weeks. In July.

I had in tow my husband, my two kids and two grown stepchildren. The Brady Bunch version 2013: In Hawaii, saying no to picking up random Tiki statues and incurring a Hawaiian curse, but saying yes to surfing lessons for six. I put a "sorry we're on vacation, we'll get back to you when we get back in town" message on our website, email, and voicemail. Then I did the unthinkable--I removed the email account from my phone so I wouldn't be tempted to peek at the beach.

This is where things get really insane. You might want to sit down. I did not lug along camera, not even a point and shoot. The only means of documenting my trip was my iPhone. Holy Macadamia, that's nuts.

For two weeks I snorkeled, baked my pink skin under a tropical sun, surfed, skateboarded, swam with sea turtles, drank rum punch, laughed, made delicious dinners for my family, explored and slept. After about day two I forgot I even owned a business. By day three I forgot it was day three. I didn't even think about work again until the plane ride home and that's when the dreaded reality set in.

I was leaving Neverland and heading back to Nevergoingtomakemybusinesssuccessful Land. I returned on a Friday and avoided turning my computer on until Monday morning. Monday morning I avoided opening my email until Monday afternoon. Monday afternoon I opened my email and found not cobwebs but 50 friendly messages from excited brides. They said things like, "Hope you are having a great vacation!" and "Can't wait to hear from you when you get back!" I had incurred the opposite of the Brady Hawaiian curse; I had incurred a post-vacation blessing.

We had worked for six months implementing all of the great advice we received at Imaging. We sweated and fretted, and tweaked and planned and then just when I couldn't take another second of hoping to see the results, I left it. Left it alone to percolate. I had been leaving my family alone for six months because even when I was with them physically my mind was on my business. Being with them mentally and physically saved my sanity and allowed my watched pot to finally boil.

Taking that vacation was our tipping point. The calls and emails are flooding in, the calendar for next year is filling in nicely, and I've stopped holding my breath. Now when my inner whiny voice asks "Are we there yet?!" I can say "Almost... almost."

About the author:

Mariah Ashley is co-owner of Snap! Photography in Rhode Island. She is blonde, loves to bake fruit pies, wears flip flops way past the summer season, should have been born in the 50s, paints and writes when the mood strikes her, is mother to Jacques and Vianne, vacations on Block Island, is vegan, never has proper or stylish outerwear, fears frogs and toads but loves turtles, has really skinny legs, personal Style- Bohemian Chic, wants to own a VW van and learn to surf someday, grew up on a cranberry farm and is happiest when snorkeling is happiest when sipping a rum punch under a palm tree.